Through Death to Rebirth

By James S. Perkins

What will be my situation immediately after death? Does my individual consciousness continue? Is immortality a myth? In this remarkable volume, James Scudday Perkins proposes answers to these and other questions concerning the pilgrimage of the soul through the cycles of death and rebirth. Placing the entire process in perspective, he presents a unique interpretation of the age-old concept of reincarnation. He perceives the stages between death and rebirth as a definite and purposeful part of the whole cyclic pattern of growth, moving irresistibly toward an “awakened awareness of living immortality now.”

Reincarnation is a subject of intimate personal concern to every individual, as well as one of highly philosophic content. The majority of the world’s people accept it in some form, and recent years have seen a dramatic upsurge of interest in the concept, particularly in the West. To the average person, seeking an answer to discouragements and a sense of failure, it often comes as a blinding light, bringing the awareness that no failure is final, that there is endless opportunity to become what one aspires to be.

James Scudday Perkins is a professional illustrator and designer, and in this book he combines his artistic and literary abilities with telling effect. Much of his life has been dedicated to the work of The Theosophical Society; he served for fifteen years as National President of the Society in the United States and, more recently, as International Vice-President at the Society’s headquarters in Madras, India. He is now resident in Australia. In addition to the present work, Mr. Perkins is the author of A Geometry of Space and Consciousness, an exploration into the nature of reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Release date: Jun 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839745799

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Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

THROUGH DEATH TO REBIRTH

BY

JAMES S. PERKINS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

THROUGH DEATH TO REBIRTH 5

ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR 8

INTRODUCTORY 13

DEATH A FAMILIAR EXPERIENCE 15

BODIES CONTINUOUSLY DYING 16

BASIS FOR IMMORTALITY 17

THE SOUL RADIATES FROM THE CENTER 21

WE LIVE IN THREE WORLDS SIMULTANEOUSLY 23

PERCEPTIVE USE OF IMAGINATION 27

WHERE IS SOLID REALITY? 31

WHAT IS DEATH? 32

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT LIFE AFTER DEATH 33

THE EXPERIENCING OF DEATH 35

IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH 37

FREEDOM—LIGHTNESS—BUOYANCY 38

THROUGH THE ETHERIC SHEATH 41

ASTRAL SOJOURN 43

THE EARTHBOUND MATERIALIST 46

DEATH THROUGH LEGAL EXECUTION 49

THE SUICIDE 51

SUDDEN ACCIDENTAL DEATH 54

HEAVEN IS INEVITABLE 61

REINCARNATION BEGINS 65

THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT 68

KARMA AND CREATION 69

RETURN TO EARTH 72

THROUGH IMMORTAL CONSCIOUSNESS TO SPIRITUAL KINGSHIP 74

the nature and method of reincarnation 76

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 77

THROUGH DEATH TO REBIRTH

What will be my situation immediately after death? Does my individual consciousness continue? Is immortality a myth? In this remarkable volume, James Scudday Perkins proposes answers to these and other questions concerning the pilgrimage of the soul through the cycles of death and rebirth. Placing the entire process in perspective, he presents a unique interpretation of the age-old concept of reincarnation. He perceives the stages between death and rebirth as a definite and purposeful part of the whole cyclic pattern of growth, moving irresistibly toward an "awakened awareness of living immortality now."

Reincarnation is a subject of intimate personal concern to every individual, as well as one of highly philosophic content. The majority of the world’s people accept it in some form, and recent years have seen a dramatic upsurge of interest in the concept, particularly in the West. To the average person, seeking an answer to discouragements and a sense of failure, it often comes as a blinding light, bringing the awareness that no failure is final, that there is endless opportunity to become what one aspires to be.

James Scudday Perkins is a professional illustrator and designer, and in this book he combines his artistic and literary abilities with telling effect. Much of his life has been dedicated to the work of The Theosophical Society; he served for fifteen years as National President of the Society in the United States and, more recently, as International Vice-President at the Society’s headquarters in Madras, India. He is now resident in Australia. In addition to the present work, Mr. Perkins is the author of A Geometry of Space and Consciousness, an exploration into the nature of reality.

FLAMES WITH LIVING IDEAS THIS IS THE PATH TO CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY

ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR

1. TRUTH GLIMPSED Fly-leaf

An arrangement that suggests the theme of this book, the idea that the individual may awaken now a joyous, creative awareness of his immortality.

2. GROWTH OF THE SOUL Frontispiece

The Immortal Self in man, a god in the becomings stands behind the outer façade of every human being. In each it is felt as a deep mystery that becomes perceptible at those times when a person exhibits flashes of other-world dignity and power. This Inner Man is growing in divine stature through experiencing many incarnations in human bodies. The painting represents the cyclic release from dead forms and self-identification with vital new forms—all taking place within the shaft of light that symbolizes Divine Law.

3. THROUGH DEATH TO REBIRTH

A design that symbolizes the return of the Soul from an incarnation bringing with him the harvests of experience on the one hand, and on the other hand, the Soul’s descent to rebirth in the fiery worlds of matter bearing the chalice of latent capacities that will be awakened in the new lifetime.

4. BODIES CONTINUOUSLY DYING

The self dies from childhood to become the youth and from youth to reach adulthood and finally old age.

5. BASIS FOR IMMORTALITY

The aeonian unfoldment of spirit through form, consciousness through matter, is symbolized in this drawing. The five-pointed star in the upper part of the design represents the Will of the manifested Creator. An individual Spark of His Divine Fire is indicated by the small star shown in the winged figure just beneath the star. This individualized Spark of Eternal Spirit is embodied in the form of the Immortal Soul—the winged figure. The Soul’s immortal purpose is growth to godhood. There is an age-long preparation prior to the birth of the individualized soul. The Spirit has brooded over and nurtured a developing unit of consciousness that has evolved through the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms.

In the drawing these are symbolized by the crystal, the rose and the deer. At last a chalice of consciousness has been prepared for individualization by the Divine Spirit. It is at this stage that the human soul is born, as explained in the text, and then begins the long series of reincarnations of this Immortal Self in human bodies. Man is Spirit, Soul and Body, in that order of reality. The ages of struggle to evolve human bodies into sensitive harmonized vehicles for spiritual consciousness is the struggle of each individual soul to master in time every force and form with which he must cope in the lower worlds.

The drawing’s elliptical character suggests the individual movement of consciousness from centers above, of Soul and Spirit, to